Transaction cards are being more commonly and frequently used as paperless transactions (e.g., electronic money transactions) grow in popularity. As an example, while consumers formerly used credit cards only for large transactions and otherwise used cash for most purchases, consumers now make extensive use of credit and debit cards for “microtransactions”—transactions amounting to only a few dollars, or in some cases for less than a dollar. This shift to use of transaction cards as a primary payment mode is owing to several reasons, including convenience (e.g., avoidance of the need to carry or replenish cash, and the ability to obtain a consolidated statement of spending from the card issuer), security (since the cardholder may have limited liability for spending made on a lost or stolen card), and the ability to obtain rebates or other incentives for use of the transaction cards.
However, when a transaction card is extensively used, it can rapidly wear as the card undergoes frequent “swipes” through card-reading slots and similar machinery used to read data encoded in the card. As examples, a magnetic strip on a transaction card can become worn and difficult to read; signature panels on transaction cards can scrape off, obliterating cardholder signatures and/or other data (e.g., card security codes); and the embossed card number, cardholder name, and/or car expiration dates can erode and become difficult to read. These defects can then lead to difficult or refused transactions.
Additionally, transaction cards tend to have a somewhat standard and bland appearance, and as cardholders increase their use of transaction cards, they often wish to have greater personalization of their cards. Most transaction card issuers provide only a single card design, or otherwise offer a limited selection of card designs from which a cardholder may choose. The usual designs tend to heavily feature the brand of the card issuer, but cardholders usually have little affinity to this brand, and were attracted only to the card issuer owing to some functional feature of the transaction card such as interest rates, incentives, and so forth.
The desire to customize transaction cards is also strong in the field of preloaded value cards. Purchasers often load these with funds, and then give them as a gift to a recipient/cardholder. While such preloaded value cards are becoming increasingly popular as gifts, many gift-givers still avoid them because they seem impersonal. While they are often sold with envelopes and/or greeting cards into which purchasers may inscribe some message to the recipient/cardholder, the ability to personalize the appearance of these preloaded value cards might substantially increase their acceptance.